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NCC unconstitutional: grand justices

The Council of Grand Justices, the nation's highest court, ruled yesterday that a recently created media watchdog agency, the National Communications Commission (NCC), is unconstitutional.

The grand justices announced specifically that Article Four of the Organic Law of the National Communications Commission (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) is unconstitutional.

However, they also decided that all decisions made by the commission before yesterday remain valid.

In addition, the council gave the commission members a grace period, saying that the legislature must amend the organic law by Dec. 31, next year.

VALID TERMS

In the meantime, NCC members' three-year terms remain valid if they do not resign.

"Members of the commission are all well-known academics, but their being assigned to current posts is unconstitutional," Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄) said.

"In addition to urging the legislature to amend the organic law immediately, we also hope that our respected members resign, out of respect for the Constitution," he said.

Along with the request for the constitutional interpretation, the Cabinet also filed a request to temporarily suspend the commission. But the ruling that the NCC is unconstitutional renders such a request irrelevant.

The grand justices said that the law interfered with the Cabinet's exercise of power.

"Basically, grand justices believed that Article Four has usurped the Cabinet's authority as the nation's top administrative government office, which is protected by the Constitution," said Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Fan Kuang-chun (范光群).

The Cabinet filed a request for a constitutional interpretation on Jan. 20 because it believed that Article Four and Article 16 of the law were unconstitutional.

COMMISSION SET-UP

Article Four stipulates that of the 18 seats of the commission, political parties will "recommend" 15 nominees. These 15 had to be apportioned based on the ratio of the parties' legislative seats, which meant the major party in the legislature would have more seats on the commission.

The premier selected the final three nominees. All 18 nominees were required to gain the approval of a nomination committee.

Article 16 regulated that any punishment meted out to media organizations prior to the commission's establishment could be reconsidered upon appeal.

Meanwhile, NCC Chairman Su Yeong-ching (蘇永欽) said yesterday that the justices' constitutional interpretation was incorrect.

"Its logic is erroneous and intolerable," Su said.

He said the interpretation assumed that nominees could be influenced by the party that nominated them, an argument he said had no evidence to back it up.

JUSTICES CRITICIZED

"Many justices serving on the Council [of Grand Justices] were recommended by either political parties or non-government organizations," Su said. "Most important, the judges are nominated by the president. So can we also infer from these facts that those judges will be affected by political parties, and will thereby lose the trust of the people?"

Su said that the NCC members have all exercised their independent judgment in reviewing every case they have handled since the NCC began operations.

Su said the nine remaining NCC members -- nine others have already resigned -- would decide on Monday whether to stay on.

The commission has been under a lot of criticism recently for its inefficiency in review cases.

Also see story:
Parties beg to differ on grand justices' NCC interpretation

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